Dear Mark: About Donald Trump

Dear Mark: Are you really trying to tell me that you think Donald Trump will make a good president?The simple answer is, I don’t know. And neither does anybody else. Trump is a genuine wild card, a slap in the face of the status quo. No one wanted Donald Trump less than the GOP status quo. But he won anyway. And he did so because his message was simple and passionate “Make America Great Again.” It’s a damned fine slogan and one that most Americans out there in the hinterlands absolutely agree with. America was great but hasn’t been for a very long time. I mean, we are the most energy rich country on earth, but we import a significant amount of our oil from countries that hate us. We have more oil and natural gas reserves than just about all the OPEC nations combined, though, which could mean jobs and more jobs, but we can’t access it because of a relatively small number of well-organized activists. Apparently, they won’t be happy until Americans pay $7.00 for a gallon gas, most all of which is taxes, just like Europe.Americans are also tired of watching 1.75 million immigrants a year pour over our borders who compete for jobs with poor Blacks, Hispanics, and Whites, driving down wages. The Left celebrate this as diversity while demanding a $15.00 an hour minimum wage for unskilled workers who suffer as the result of these same immigration policies. Approximately 2% of American workers earn the minimum wage and half of that are teenagers and retirees who can only earn so much without losing their social security. So, radically increasing the minimum wage would only increase unemployment.

​We already have nearly 100 million people of working age who are unemployed right now. That’s in a nation of 316 million people, including infants and the elderly. Besides, the government doesn’t pay worker’s salaries, businesses do. In the last fiscal quarter, the economy grew at less than one-half of one percent. That was in what should have been our busiest season. To give you an idea of what that means, the economy needs to grow at least 16 times that rate or, at a rate of between 3 and 4% annually, that’s just so we can pay our bills and not go deeper into debt. All of this is in spite of having the lowest interest rates in the history of this country.The Left complains that we don’t spend enough on income support programs, but nearly 70% of our annual budget goes to social security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Military spending is 16% by comparison. Add in the massive failure by our educational establishment, even though we spend more per student than just about any nation on earth, and then what? This is made even worse by Common Core.

​Now, ask yourself, where do we win? Hell Obamacare is driving healthcare premiums through the roof while offering ridiculous deductibles and very limited services.

There appears to be no end in sight to the chaos. Some small number of people at the top and the bottom may do Ok. In the vast middle, however, are the pissed-off, silent majority, who are silent no longer.​So, ask me again about Donald Trump. My answer is, I’ll take the gamble. If nothing else, it’s a signal to the status quo “Kiss my ass.” And that may not be much, but it’s better than nothing.